Kolkata Port sails on asset monetisation, intends to expand portfolio

India's oldest port has been leasing its vast land bank for decades. With the Budget announcing plans to monetise public assets, it intends to expand its portfolio and extend to non-land assets, too

The Union Budget may have spelt out the Modi government’s grand plan to monetise assets of public sector institutions for the first time, but at least one organ of the Centre has been doing it for decades.

Meet Kolkata Port Trust, now Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata (SMP, Kolkata), the country’s oldest port and one of the biggest landlords of the city. With 4,000 acres in prime locations of the city and its outskirts, some along the banks of river Hooghly, the port has been on the job of monetising assets for long.

“Each year, we put 20-30 plots on